The Drink Tank 149 (2007).pdf

The Drink Tank 149

Wrestling with Issues

So, this issue might end up be-

ing about creating another issue and the

issues therein. Yes, I know that’s con-

fusing because who would want to read

something about making something that

you’re going to have to read sometime

anyhow? But, as The Drink Tank has

always been about the little things in my

life that get bumped up to bigger things

(and the things in other people’s lives

that make me want to feature them in

the pages of my life!) I igure I’ve gotta

put this here. I will now pause and let

those of you who want out of the end-

less loop to go and read eI or Prolapse or

Askance.

I love Jack Avery’s From Distant Shores.

It’s right up there with Plokta and Con-

sonant Enigma for beauty of lay-out. He

throws things together in such a way that

the iles are huge, but the effect is gor-

geous. While I could never do a full zine

like that, elements of Jack’s design have

started to creep their way into my brain

and then onto the page of The Drink

Tank. It started with the table of contents

page.

What?!?!?! I hear you cry. Table of

Contents, for The Drink Tank? No such

thing has ever happened! I don’t normally

like ToCs. I just don’t. I think they’re

pointless since I’d really rather just jump

straight into the content and go from

there. Yes, I understand that drives some

people crazy (LASFAPA and SNAPS folks

don’t seem to like that I skip the whole

ToC and colophon thing) but I just don’t

like them. I have a photo that I think is

fantastic and would lend itself to being

the background for a ToC, so I did one.

Yes, I felt a little dirty doing it, but it it

and I stand by it!

Next, I laid in various articles. I

experimented a bit with those two. Lay-

out’s never been my strong suit, though

I did a good job with the Cocktail issue

(and in a lot of ways the Corset issue

is an outgrowth of the Cocktail issue’s

layout) and the Winchester House is-

sue (way back in June or July of 2005)

worked for me. This one’s gotta be really

different. I iddled with things, went out

and started asking for more and more art

Thanks for staying.

Anyhoo, the larger story this week-

end was I got myself addicted to laying

out The Drink Tank’s Corset issue. I

wasn’t supposed to have much time to

work on it. I was supposed to go over to

The Lovely and Talented Linda’s at noon

on Saturday, but I had agreed to help out

a ilm crew from Canada and they were

only going to be in town for a couple of

days and they called me Friday and said

that Saturday would be the day. Those

things happen once in a while. I try to

minimize that in my life. They wouldn’t

be showing up until at least 2, so I woke

up around 9 and started working on the

Corset issue.

Now, I’ve not gotten too much

material so far. There’s a piece from

James, a piece from Jean Martin in her

Drink Tank debut, I had a piece and

a few friends sent art. I started a few

weeks ago iddling with the cover. I had

thoughts of a different cover, but when I

found the piece, I knew I would have to

use it. It’s a bit more peppery than my

average Drink Tank cover, but I think

it’s muy cool. I had inished a page by the

time I set things down (this was before

Silicon, so about 3 weeks ago) and I was

ready to work on it again. I started by

laying in Jean’s article.

Now, I don’t know about you, but

and folks started sending more and more

stuff. Some of it was strange and even,

dare I say...erotic. The concept of the

Corset lends itself to that. M and SaBean

both sent me articles, one of which I did

some serious snipping to for length and

other matters. I laid in James’ article and

Jean’s and one of mine and that was that.

I went and got ready to go in to work

and then came back to the computer and

looked it over.

It almost looked like a respectable

zine.

Well, it’s hard to be respectable

when you’re dealing with corset images

with obvious lashes of the more fun por-

tions of the female human form. That

said, the issue is more than just T&A.

There’s also real writing and fun to be

had! I’m excited...and not like that!

The ilm crew that came was shoot-

ing a documentary about the history of

the video game. Now, this is a topic that

has been done nearly to death but these

guys were shooting hot 35mm ilm. That’s

right, a ilm about technology shot on

ilm. That’s not done nearly as much any-

more, but these guys were obviously rich

kids who had the material and the money

and put together a great crew. They kept

asking the same questions and they shot

a wonderful series of Nintendo games

being played. I love Nintendo and they

brought their set-up and we played Super

Mario 3 and a little Duck Hunt. That was

fun and I was better than I used to be at

Duck Hunt. I must have played that for

a thousand hours when I was a kid. They

shot the PDP-1, the Pong Box, our vari-

ous systems and they spent ages shoot-

ing the ComputerSpace game. I love that

game too, and they wanted shots of it

working, but the screen is busted so they

got sound but no pictures. The sound rig

these guys had would make Spielberg go

‘where do they get such wonderful toys?’

because they had a tiny sound system

that picked up everything!

The best thing about my weekend

was enjoying parties. The Lovely and

Talented Linda and I went out a couple of

times to enjoy some ine time with a few

of her friends. We’ve pretty much met all

of my friends and I’m behind in meeting

her friends. These things happen. They’re

all lovely people and I was glad to have

the chance to meet them.

The Computer His-

tory Museum has a tradi-

tion of selling out. That’s

not a bad thing, I fully

support sell-outs, and this

time I think it’s one of the

coolest selling outs we’ve

ever done. It’s the Ameri-

can intro event for the

SmartCar!

I’m told that in

Europe, the SmartCar isn’t

exactly a rare thing. It’s

a tiny car, two passenger,

that’s ideal for short-haul

driving. It’s light, agile

enough and easy to park.

The US has been slow to

adopt the car, though I’ve

seen some driving on US

road for the last three

year. Manufactured by Mercedes, it’s a

car that gets great mileage in Europe

because it’s a light three cylinder.

In the US, not quite so perfect.

You see, we have rules about side-

impact and the like. One of the ways in

which the SmartCar was able to get so

much out of its gas is that it was light

and in the US, you really can’t be light

unless you’re also crash-resistant. There’s

something to be said for safety, and

there’s something to be said for gas mile-

age.

The variety of options they’ve got

is pretty impressive. For the big Ameri-

can release. they’ve brought more than

30 of them to the mu-

seum (and more that

are all around the BA-

rea at various Whole

Foods Markets) and

the variety is great.

They have typicals, the

ones I’ve seen, a couple

of prototypes, one that

is one of only 2000 and

a few others. It’s a neat

event.

The thing I

would love about them

is that they’re not hard

to drive, it into every

parking spot imagina-

ble and are less fuel

intesive. Supposedly

they’re 40+ miles to

the gallon. My present

car is 30 or so, which is pretty good. The

sad part is it’s 40 to the gallon with a

maximum capacity of 2 while my car still

average 27+ with a full 4 people in it.

And here are some of the cars

they’re showing with a little bit of com-

mentary from the folks who were talking

about them!

This is the Car the WOrld should have

been building all along. Perfect for

people who don’t go anywhere!

-One of the SmartCar people

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